Senior official stumbles on job placement scam

[Thaivisa News]

Roi Et: – Provincial police have sought and received the arrest warrants for job fraud suspect after a senior official unwittingly walked into the crime in progress at a Buddhist temple.

Police are conducting a manhunt for suspect Aekkapong Srihad, 29 to face charges related to the job placement scam.

Roi Et police chief Colonel Weerawat Srabua said provincial chief drug buster Nopporn Chantarasena alerted police to the scam.

Nopporn paid a visit to Wat Srirat, Mueang Roi Et district. While he was talking to temple’s abbot Phra Khru Vijit, he saw some 21 people dressed in civil service uniforms attending a training course at the temple.

He said the abbot told him that a man who claimed to be from the provincial office of the Social Development and Human Security Ministry had asked the temple to organise the course on morals for newly-employed civil servants.

The man paid 25,000 baht for the temple’s course, he said.

He said he was unaware of any civil service hiring in the province, prompting him to check with the ministry.

The ministry confirmed there was no job hiring and police went to investigate at the temple.

The 21, comprising 10 men and 11 women, aged 18 to 30, were villagers from Pathum Rat district.

The villagers told police that Ekkapong and three to four accomplices went to their villages to accept job applications for civil service positions.

Ekkapong said they would have to attend the temple’s training course for 29 days in lieu of taking job enrolment tests.

Each applicant would have to pay the course fee ranging from 30,000 baht to 120,000 baht depending on the position applied.

Police tallied the payments totalling 1.7 million baht.

[Always18]

Difficult to feel any sympathy for the "victims" of this scam when they, themselves, were quite willing to engage in a clearly corrupt practice by paying a bribe/course fee to bypass the normal entry requirements to join the civil service.

Just another day in the life of a wholly corrupt society...................

[dragonfly94]

So very Thai, you can't blame the too much for falling for it as you can actually join the Police, become a teacher, customs official or even get a driving license by paying money up front.

[clockman]

Nice to know it was being done in temple!

[96tehtarp]

This is a very common scam.

[JOC]

Nice to know it was being done in temple!

25.000 to the abbot and no questions asked!!

[bangkokfrog]

"Provincial chief drug buster Nopporn Chantarasena" witnessed a potential scam and "alerted police". Meanwhile the potential suspect flees the scene!

If Nopporn is indeed a policeman with the power to detain and question people acting suspiciously , he should face disciplinary action for not taking immediate action. (Or did someone associated with the temple ask him to go slowly?)

[smedly]

Difficult to feel any sympathy for the "victims" of this scam when they, themselves, were quite willing to engage in a clearly corrupt practice by paying a bribe/course fee to bypass the normal entry requirements to join the civil service.

Just another day in the life of a wholly corrupt society...................

I don't think they were trying to bypass - my interpretation of the report indicated it was an unofficial prep class before undertaking the normal official entry process - the only thing I see wrong here is that Civil Service jobs require a high level education of at least a degree - perhaps the culprits convinced them that this prep course would negate the need for a university education and allow them to apply for official posts

[Always18]

Difficult to feel any sympathy for the "victims" of this scam when they, themselves, were quite willing to engage in a clearly corrupt practice by paying a bribe/course fee to bypass the normal entry requirements to join the civil service.

Just another day in the life of a wholly corrupt society...................

I don't think they were trying to bypass - my interpretation of the report indicated it was an unofficial prep class before undertaking the normal official entry process - the only thing I see wrong here is that Civil Service jobs require a high level education of at least a degree - perhaps the culprits convinced them that this prep course would negate the need for a university education and allow them to apply for official posts

"Ekkapong said they would have to attend the temple's training course for 29 days IN LIEU OF taking job enrolment tests."

[Toknarok]

To gett any sort of official job in Thailand you have to pay money up front to someone. I'm talking about jobs with Government or Local Govt, not as a waiter in a restaurant or factory worker. One young man I know had to pay 30K baht to get a job as a garbage collecter on a Municipal truck. The job itself paid 9K a month. Government jobs are much sought after because of the perks.

[geriatrickid]

"Provincial chief drug buster Nopporn Chantarasena" witnessed a potential scam and "alerted police". Meanwhile the potential suspect flees the scene!

If Nopporn is indeed a policeman with the power to detain and question people acting suspiciously , he should face disciplinary action for not taking immediate action. (Or did someone associated with the temple ask him to go slowly?)

Get a grip. He did the right thing by informing the appropriate authorities who investigated. At the time he had no evidence of a crime in progress. All he had were suspicions.

[slapout]

wonder what the going rate for a 1 month street sweeping tution/training session would cost? as they can also accomplish getting half snockered by 0900 our5 villiage has some super potential ap[plicants and donoations will be rapidly frorth comimng from most of the ''working''residents,

another cookie jar lid has been opened,

[MaxYakov]

Senior official stumbles on job placement scam

Understandable since they had just installed the scam recently. I hope he didn't fall and injure himself.

[kimamey]

To gett any sort of official job in Thailand you have to pay money up front to someone. I'm talking about jobs with Government or Local Govt, not as a waiter in a restaurant or factory worker. One young man I know had to pay 30K baht to get a job as a garbage collecter on a Municipal truck. The job itself paid 9K a month. Government jobs are much sought after because of the perks.

My wife has an official job in part of the Ministry of Labour and I don't think she paid anything. She doesn't like corruption so I'm sure she would have told me if it had been necessary or if she was aware of any of her colleagues doing so.

She has however heard of local people who had to pay for certain jobs. I can't remember the amount for sure. 300,000 keeps coming to mind but that's a loot lot so maybe your figure of 30,000 is right.

Just edited what must be a Freudian slip.

Edited March 22, 2015 by kimamey

[klauskunkel]

"Provincial chief drug buster Nopporn Chantarasena" witnessed a potential scam and "alerted police". Meanwhile the potential suspect flees the scene!

If Nopporn is indeed a policeman with the power to detain and question people acting suspiciously , he should face disciplinary action for not taking immediate action. (Or did someone associated with the temple ask him to go slowly?)

Get a grip. He did the right thing by informing the appropriate authorities who investigated. At the time he had no evidence of a crime in progress. All he had were suspicions.

...and sometimes it's not that easy to differentiate between a sanctioned, official scam and a scam originating from the private sector...

[ezzra]

From that and other case, you can only deduce that Thais never misses an opportunity to dupe

and cheat other Thais, day in day out, year after year, no compactions no mercy...

[novo58]

My partners daughter applied for a ground crew job with Thai Airlines not long ago. She was told that she would have to PAY THEM ( thai Airlines)..........I think it was 35000B.

She was told it was for uniform, training costs etc..................I asked her to find out if this money would be refunded after ( lets say ) 12mths service with the company. She got no answer.

If it were a bond to prevent her being trained up and then leaving for another airline I could understand it....................so long as it was refundable after a set time period.

Besides, by this time it was obvious that Thai was in major financial difficulty...........................I told her to forget about any job with Thai Airlines.

[slapout]

if the eye were as quick to see cracks in the method of operation in the government system as they were to spot ade taking a parking place,, no one would dare try to fletchd a crust ofr bread much less billions off baht.

everyone applies blindfold upon arrival at work station and removes upon departure for home at end of shift

[HerbalEd]

Difficult to feel any sympathy for the "victims" of this scam when they, themselves, were quite willing to engage in a clearly corrupt practice by paying a bribe/course fee to bypass the normal entry requirements to join the civil service.

Just another day in the life of a wholly corrupt society...................

So you know all the details, do you? Do you know exactly what the "applicants" were told and are you absolutely sure they thought they were "bypassing the normal entry requirements? Of course, you don't.

[Pib]

This is a very common scam.

Indeed it is in one form or another. Approx every year or so I hear about a in-law or Thai friend who paid "someone" X-thousand baht who supposedly had the inside track on arranging a sought after job....and every time that sought after job never came through.

[KhnomKhnom]

My partners daughter applied for a ground crew job with Thai Airlines not long ago. She was told that she would have to PAY THEM ( thai Airlines)..........I think it was 35000B.

She was told it was for uniform, training costs etc..................I asked her to find out if this money would be refunded after ( lets say ) 12mths service with the company. She got no answer.

If it were a bond to prevent her being trained up and then leaving for another airline I could understand it....................so long as it was refundable after a set time period.

Besides, by this time it was obvious that Thai was in major financial difficulty...........................I told her to forget about any job with Thai Airlines.

I got fed up with silly comments by the time I had read down to yours, so I will unload on you.

World wide, it is not unusual to ask new employees to buy couple of uniforms and pay for other minor start up costs for a new job. Probably her cost was more like 3500 which is reasonable. She owns the uniforms and tools, etc, so why should the airline pay later for what she owns? "A bond" are you kidding, this is not a rocket science job.

And any stable sober person can easily know that Thailand is not going to let its flagship airline fail, so that is not a consideration.

Having a new employee buy her own uniform makes sense; that avoids the company giving a uniform and the applicant wearing it home, never to return..... free clothes. Shaking my head in wonder about your opinion.

[96tehtarp]

My partners daughter applied for a ground crew job with Thai Airlines not long ago. She was told that she would have to PAY THEM ( thai Airlines)..........I think it was 35000B.

She was told it was for uniform, training costs etc..................I asked her to find out if this money would be refunded after ( lets say ) 12mths service with the company. She got no answer.

If it were a bond to prevent her being trained up and then leaving for another airline I could understand it....................so long as it was refundable after a set time period.

Besides, by this time it was obvious that Thai was in major financial difficulty...........................I told her to forget about any job with Thai Airlines.

Many people here pay for jobs because they are not after the salary, it's often low and irrelevant. Many people are looking for both the legal and illegal benefits the job brings with it. An airline job would entail reduced rate legal travel benefits for family, etc. Other jobs offer illegal benefits. It's very common here and elsewhere in Asia.

[Srikcir]

Another good reason why Church and State should be separate.

When the State promotes and protects a religion to the exclusivity of all other religions, why shouldn't people believe that religion will conduct itself honestly in matters of government? The people scammed here are not at fault. The government needs to make criminal charges against the wat and monks involved, and compensate the victims of its betrayal.

[rubl]

Unlike some here I do feel sorry for the victims. I'm more inclined to blame society as a whole which makes such scams believable. People just 'know' how the system works.

Well, it's time to make sure the system no longer works that way and to educate people on it. Mind you, even if the right steps are taken we still talk about a one or two generations length plan.

[rubl]

Another good reason why Church and State should be separate.

When the State promotes and protects a religion to the exclusivity of all other religions, why shouldn't people believe that religion will conduct itself honestly in matters of government? The people scammed here are not at fault. The government needs to make criminal charges against the wat and monks involved, and compensate the victims of its betrayal.

You're going off fast, my dear rickers.

The abbot may be guilty of ignorance only it would seem. Temples often 'rent out' space for activities, especially activities which are not against religion or government. In this case even with rental fee of 25,000 Baht the abbot may have been a victim as much as the student who paid for the training session.

[tomacht8]

He said the abbot told him that a man who claimed to be from the provincial office of the Social Development and Human Security Ministry had asked the temple to organise the course on morals for newly-employed civil servants.

......he saw some 21 people dressed in civil service uniforms attending a training course at the temple.

Police tallied the payments totalling 1.7 million baht.

Interesting is the high credibility of this scam.
It looks like that working as a civil servant needs now new moral adjustments.
It clearly shows that the current view of civil servants was perceived as immoral.
Under the new Law and order government is now morality required.
It is then only logical, that here 25.ooo Baht or more must paid for a new ethics course.

Which is an interesting reflection of the current situation of social perception regarding new ethics as an servant in state office.

[jcisco]

What an interesting scam in that someone would go to the effort of developing 29 days of course material for the purpose of defrauding people. The scam is, give money, do course gain application ability to the government service. Unless the next step requires more dosh, wouldn't the jig be to disappear before day 1 of the course has finished. Having turned up to pickup any payments outstanding.

I can only assume the effort is being taken to further develop the cashflow from the victims in subsequent steps, anyone else got any ideas cause this is hurting my head.

[halloween]

Another good reason why Church and State should be separate.

When the State promotes and protects a religion to the exclusivity of all other religions, why shouldn't people believe that religion will conduct itself honestly in matters of government? The people scammed here are not at fault. The government needs to make criminal charges against the wat and monks involved, and compensate the victims of its betrayal.

The wat was delivering, providing a 29 day course in morals fro a reasonable ~B1500 per head. It appears it was badly needed, along with the more expensive lessons in greed and stupidity.

[issanaus]

Another good reason why Church and State should be separate.

When the State promotes and protects a religion to the exclusivity of all other religions, why shouldn't people believe that religion will conduct itself honestly in matters of government? The people scammed here are not at fault. The government needs to make criminal charges against the wat and monks involved, and compensate the victims of its betrayal.

Sorry but the Kingdom of Thailand does not "promotes and protects a religion to the exclusivity of all other religions" so you are either badly informed or seeking to misled other people. The time when it was suggested/promoted that Buddhism should be a state religion was when it was put forward by in the discussion relation to a previous Charter by Thaksin/his supporters and dropped very promptly when it was publically opposed by the family that heads all religions in Thailand.

Of course under the Yingluck (mal)administration one particular "Buddhist Sect" was given the go-a head to promote its somewhat materialistic "interpretation" of the Buddha Dhamma through mandating that teachers in school had to attend Wat Dhammakaya training sessions and use their texts in teaching at schools. Needless to say that this is the same organisation that was a major beneficiary of the generosity of the theft of KCC depositors money which first came to light during the Yingluck Administration and where that government did nothing about it (one who have to presume to give Wat Dhammakaya more time to dispose of the money). So the logical extension to your argument is that Yingluck and the members of that government should have to personally compensate the creditors of KCC for their betrayal.

From what the OP said (with the usual reservations about the standard of reporting and translation) it would appear that the Wat received a small sum of money that I think could be justified as expenses. If it could be proven that the Wat/Abbot had know that it was a scam then at the least someone should be disrobed. As you say that criminal charges should be laid against the Wat and Monks I presume that you have evidence of the criminality of the Wat and monks and be willing to put it on the public record here.

[novo58]

My partners daughter applied for a ground crew job with Thai Airlines not long ago. She was told that she would have to PAY THEM ( thai Airlines)..........I think it was 35000B.

She was told it was for uniform, training costs etc..................I asked her to find out if this money would be refunded after ( lets say ) 12mths service with the company. She got no answer.

If it were a bond to prevent her being trained up and then leaving for another airline I could understand it....................so long as it was refundable after a set time period.

Besides, by this time it was obvious that Thai was in major financial difficulty...........................I told her to forget about any job with Thai Airlines.

I got fed up with silly comments by the time I had read down to yours, so I will unload on you.

World wide, it is not unusual to ask new employees to buy couple of uniforms and pay for other minor start up costs for a new job. Probably her cost was more like 3500 which is reasonable. She owns the uniforms and tools, etc, so why should the airline pay later for what she owns? "A bond" are you kidding, this is not a rocket science job.

And any stable sober person can easily know that Thailand is not going to let its flagship airline fail, so that is not a consideration.

Having a new employee buy her own uniform makes sense; that avoids the company giving a uniform and the applicant wearing it home, never to return..... free clothes. Shaking my head in wonder about your opinion.

I feel very honoured . This is the first time ANYONE has directly replied to one of my posts .

I am from Australia................and the standard THERE is that if an employer want employees to wear a SPECIFIC UNIFORM then it is up to the employer to provide that uniform. The uniform always remains the property of the employer and MUST be returned when the employee ceases employment.

You yourself state that 3500B would be reasonable ...............THEREFORE the 35000B requested is NOT REASONABLE. There was NO MENTION of any " tools".

If an employer wants a trained skilled worker then it is the EMPLOYERS responsibility to provide the training to its standard that may be required if the employee DOES NOT already have those skills or knowledge. The employer knows this when they accept the employee for employment.

as for your final comment ...........................Is it common in Thailand for someone to go through the entire employment process JUST TO OBTAIN NEW CLOTHES AND NEVER SHOW UP FOR WORK OR TO EARN AN ONGOING INCOME?

There are certain costs involved in running any business and to train staff to the standard that a business desires, to have staff dress in a uniform( hence the word) standard and appearance are part of those costs that the BUSINESS needs to cover. IF it is different in Thailand ..................then perhaps that is the problem.The MAKE the employee cover these COSTS OF DOING BUSINESS is what leads to the type of SCAM mentioned in the ORIGINAL POST ...........................in my humble opinion.

Your lack of belief in the honesty and integrity of people seeking employment absolutely astounds me